As known, a mobile communication network, such as an LTE (Long Term Evolution) communication network, comprises a radio access network (also termed E-UTRAN, namely Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) comprising a plurality of network nodes (also termed eNodeB) spread over a certain geographical area. Each network node typically provides radio coverage in one or more cells, each cell being an area nearby the network node. The network node in particular exchanges data with user terminals (namely, mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, etc.) located within its cell(s). Data are typically exchanged within time slots of a radio frame carried over a number of frequency sub-carriers of the network frequency bands.
Typically, each network node transmits a synchronization channel with synchronization signals, which are exploited by the user of the network to discover the cell identifier (also termed CID) that identifies the network node. In an LTE communication network, two synchronization signals are typically used, namely the Primary Synchronization Signal, PSS, and the Secondary Synchronization Signal, SSS. As known, at the user terminal, the CID is needed to obtain a time/frequency resource for transmission within the cell and to recover the cell specific reference signals (RS).
In an LTE communication network, the time/frequency resources are organized in a OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) time/frequency grid, wherein a number of frequency sub-carriers are assigned to radio sub-frames of 1 ms in length comprised within a radio frame having a length of 10 ms. Each subframe comprises two time slots, each time slot consisting of a number of OFDM symbols. The cell specific reference signals are reference (or pilot) symbols inserted within the OFDM time/frequency grid at predefined time/frequency locations. The cell specific reference signals are typically used to decode both the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) and other downlink physical channels, such as the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmitted by each single node. The PBCH broadcasts the Master Information Block (MIB) that contains network information needed by the user terminal(s) to access the communication network and to acquire other information from the network node. The MIB has a size equal to 14 information bits plus 10 spare bits, which are transmitted with a period of 40 ms. As known, the MIB carries the following information fields: downlink system bandwidth, Physical H-ARQ Information Channel (PHICH) structure and System Frame Number.
Though the description above makes reference to an exemplary LTE communication network, the concept of broadcasting network information necessary for accessing the network is common to any currently available mobile communication system. For instance, as known, in a 3G UMTS communication network, each Node B broadcasts system information including a Master Information Block containing the network information needed by the user terminal(s) to access the communication network, such as scheduling information, a PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network) identifier, a PLMN type, and so on.
WO 2014/113173 discloses techniques and apparatus for enhanced physical broadcast channel (PBCH) for new carrier type (NCT) in long term evolution (LTE). According to certain aspects, a method for wireless communications by a base station (BS) is provided. The method generally includes generating an enhanced physical broadcast channel (EPBCH) using a frequency division multiplexed (FDM) structure, wherein the EPBCH spans substantially a subframe duration and transmitting the EPBCH.